MetaFilter posts tagged with vocabulary

Are you happy to see me or is that just a dictionary in your pocket?

Gyan — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:16:55 -0800

In search of the world’s hardest language

Flatpots, Fire Corals, and Four Blasters

Iridic — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:39:44 -0800

A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families.

On the Division of Our Three Score & Ten

HumanComplex — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:52:07 -0800

Ben Schott (previously) on The Ages of Man.

All the news that's fit to cromulate

escabeche — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:01:45 -0800

The 50 words that generate the most click-throughs to the dictionary from the New York Times. The Nieman Journalism Lab reveals the words that sent NYT readers running to the Merriam-Webster. Key fact: Maureen Dowd is overly fond of the word "louche." If the post is TL;DR for you, here's the list in Wordle.

a selcouth galimatias

nickyskye — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:33:36 -0800

International House of Logorrhea, at The Phrontistry, a free online dictionary of weird and unusual words to help enhance your vocabulary. Generous language resources, 2 and 3 letter Scrabble words l The Compass DeRose Guide to Emotion Words l all kinds of glossaries for color terms, wisdom, love and attraction, scientific instruments, manias and obsessions, feeding and eating, carriages and chariots, dance styles and all kinds of fun word stuff. Previously and previously.

Playing For Kibble

Secret Life of Gravy — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 06:30:58 -0800

Play Trivia to Help Save Abandoned Animals. Free Rice set the standard for on-line charity games and Free Poverty soon followed by donating water. Now you can play for free kibble to be donated to either Rocket Dog Rescue or The Urban Cat Project.

Why yes, I do have a clue

Mitheral — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:28:10 -0800

EclipseCrossword is a powerful windows tool for automatically creating crossword puzzles. You can create multiple puzzles from the same word list; print the puzzles in assorted formats; or export interactive puzzles for web pages. Or you can create crossword puzzles online.

A Presidential Word-a-Day

Tarn — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:00:01 -0800

The wonderful wordsmith, Anu Garg, at Wordsmith.org has posted five words this week: "To barrack"."Bidentate"."Meeken". "Palinode". "Obambulate". Definitions inside. "Obambulate", verb intr.: To walk about. "Palinode", noun: A poem in which the author retracts something said in an earlier poem. "To barrack", verb tr., intr.: 1. To shout in support: to cheer. 2. To shout against: to jeer. noun: A building used to house soldiers. "Bidentate", adjective: Having two teeth or toothlike parts. "Meeken", verb tr., intr.: To make or become meek or submissive.

Correct letters in wrong positions

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 06:13:48 -0800

Use everyone's logic and vocabulary skills to figure out what the secret word is.

The Wikipedia of dictionaries

anjamu — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 01:18:40 -0800

Wikiwords is a collaborative project to create a dictionary of all terms in all languages.

I can't believe quonsar didn't win.

DeepFriedTwinkies — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 20:38:23 -0800

The American Dialect Society has announced the 2005 word of the year. Sadly, muffin top, crotchfruit, Cruizasy (PDF file), and the obviously wonderful popesquatting were big old losers.

Dictionary

robbyrobs — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 07:09:31 -0800

Merrian-Webster open dictionary "Have you spotted a new word or a new sense for an old word that hasn't made it into the dictionary yet? Well, here's your chance to add your discovery (and its definition) to Merriam-Webster's Open Dictionary"

The Little Prince in a 100 Languages

gregb1007 — Tue, 17 May 2005 19:01:08 -0800

If listening to sound of different languages is something you may be interested in, visit the multimedia language project website hosted by the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. It features the sound files of a small blurb from Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince read outloud in a 100 different languages. The blurbs are also textually transcribed. [See more inside]

Gay Gayer Gayest

dhoyt — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 23:18:41 -0800

JoeMyGod implores his queer peers: What's the Gayest Thing You've Ever Done? • ''That is SO gay! I've been thinking about that expression a lot lately. What does it mean? Is it a playground epithet that is simply in vogue with the grown-ups? Or is it a sign that gay culture is so integrated into the pop culture that even the hets now see the evidence of homo-style in their everyday lives, and make jokes about it?" A followup to the original post, Part II: Flaming Son of "Gay, Gayer, Gayest"

Word play

qwerty155 — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 03:57:13 -0800

Collins Word Exchange "At Collins we pride ourselves on reflecting current language, used by real English speakers across the world." Collins have launched a public forum designed for (amongst other things) discussing 'new' words and the legitamacy of their inclusion in official dictionaries. Chav is probably on its way, but I'm no intellectual snob, but bounce-backability? Even I'd balk at that one.
And, just remember kids, flip-flopper is not valid for use in scrabble

Dude, where's my safely heterosexual intimacy?

owenville — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 08:56:05 -0800

Deconstructing Dude A linguist from the University of Pittsburgh has published a scholarly paper deconstructing and deciphering the word "dude," contending it is much more than a catchall for lazy, inarticulate surfers, slackers and teenagers. An admitted dude-user during his college years, Scott Kiesling said the four-letter word has many uses, all of which express closeness between men in a safely heterosexual manner. How about you? Do you do the dude? If so, does that mean you're white [PDF]?

More on arithmetic in the Amazon

myl — Sun, 31 Oct 2004 03:37:38 -0800

More on arithmetic in the Amazon The 10/15 issue of Science has the official publication of Peter Gordon's work on numerical cognition among the Pirahã, and a companion article by Pierre Pica et al. on similar research among another Amazonian tribe, the Mundurukú. What with the U.S. election and the discovery of H. Floresiensis, this is not getting nearly as a much play as the pre-publication back in August of Peter Gordon's work. Brian Butterworth has an piece in the Guardian about both articles, and I've put some links, quotes and diagrams here. Compared to the reports on the Pirahã, the Mundurukú people, language, and experiments are all somewhat different, although the conclusions are broadly similar.

English to English

adampsyche — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 09:10:38 -0800

The Internet's Most Accurate English-to-English Dictionary This internet service will translate any English word, phrase or passage into English, or vice versa. Your original grammar, style, and spelling are left intact!

Native Languages of the Americas

Ufez Jones — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 14:31:18 -0800

Native Languages of the Americas: Preserving and promoting American Indian languages.

It'll go over well in Nantucket...

Vidiot — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 00:42:12 -0800

The OEDILF is an audacious project which is attempting to write a limerick for every word in the English language. 642 limericks have been completed so far. Here's an overview of the project. Is it possible? Here's what editor-in-chief Chris J. Stolin says:

Skeptics say it's inconceivable.
A new OED? Unbelievable!
But I feel secure
That if we only endure,
It's a goal that is wholly achievable!

(via languagehat.)

tk

the fire you left me — Wed, 23 Jun 2004 14:41:06 -0800

"Hey fagdaddy why u killl teammates?" A cobbeled session in word parsing.

You will learn something, I guarontee!

Ufez Jones — Thu, 04 Sep 2003 11:31:07 -0800

The Encyclopedia of Cajun Culture features everything from Acadiana to Zydeco. Two of the more interesting entries I've found are the Un-Cajun Committee and the unknown to me genre of Swamp Pop

Lost Words

ttrendel — Wed, 03 Sep 2003 14:41:38 -0800

The Compendium of Lost Words

Compendium of lost words

adamrice — Sat, 16 Aug 2003 10:57:11 -0800

Compendium of lost words You may have been wondering what "triclavianism" means. You may have been disappointed when dictionary.com couldn't help. Look no further.

Must eschew talk about fatness, Iraq, liquor, tobacco - else regret.

talos — Thu, 31 Jul 2003 05:59:00 -0800

Apronyms: Apt Phrases, Redolent Of Novel Yet Meaningful Sense.
"An apronym is a special kind of acronym where the initials spell out a word or phrase relevant to the expanded version". This in contrast to you run-of the-mill acronyms. Yes, the link might come in handy for the perpetuation of this, already legendary, thread.